Red Symons and Beverley Wang: Don’t expect a joint podcast any time soon.Source:Supplied

A BIZARRE podcast that saw veteran broadcaster Red Symons ask his guest a succession of offensive questions about her race has been deleted from the ABC website.

As all trace of the 20-minute podcast was deleted this afternoon, Symons’ fellow ABC colleague Jonathan Green offered the unusual defence that his friend had “never imagined” the podcast ‘would see the light of day.”

I say this as a friend of Red Symons: this is audio he never imagined would see the light of day. ugly, but in its way private. i'm uneasy.

Symons had invited ABC journalist and producer Beverley Wangonto his show to discuss her own newly-launched podcast,It’s Not A Race. Her show takes a look at “race, racism, identity, culture and difference” in contemporary Australia.

The interview took a strange turn almost immediately when Symons informed his guest that he was upset, because he’d wanted to launch a segment tackling similar topics on his own show.

“Except my segment was called ‘What’s the deal with Asians?’” he told her.

“No, I ask the questions. What’s the deal with Asians? It’s just a useful, general question about the nature of our culture, and how one should interact with people who have a different cultural background.”

Symons had another question for his guest: “Are you yellow?”

Red Symons.Source:News Limited

Beverley Wang.Source:ABC

He then asked if she was Chinese, to which Wang explained that she was born in Canada with a Taiwanese family background.

From there, Symons quizzed Wang on her ancestry, including “what sort of boat” her ancestors had used to flee mainland China for a new life in Taiwan some 400 years ago.

By this time, both parties seemed incredulous at each other’s line of questioning.

Symons: “Do they speak Mandarin or Cantonese?”

Wang: “Who’s ‘they’?”

Symons: “THE PEOPLE IN TAIWAN.”

Wang: “They speak Taiwanese and they speak Mandarin. And in Canada where I’m from, they speak English and French.”

Symons: “I knew that. You’re probably from the west coast of Canada.”

Wang: “Why do you think that, Red?”

Symons: “Because it’s closer to ASIA.”

Wang: “I’m just asking, don’t get defensive.”

Wang then changed tack, asking Symons if they could discuss the 2009 Hey, Hey It’s Saturday controversy in which a group of Red Faces contestants performed as the Jackson Five in blackface make-up and afro wigs. Wang mentioned that she’d discussed the scandal in the first episode of her podcast, so was keen to hear from someone who was actually there. Symons said that he “wrote a defence of it” at the time.